At tearful sentencing hearing, Watsonville woman says attack by Wayne Maynor left her afraid to be alone

SANTA CRUZ - A Watsonville woman stood bravely before a judge Friday detailing how her brutal rape in July 2011 left her forever changed, moments before her attacker was sentenced to 65 years in state prison.

"Ever since that day, I cannot be alone in my office," she said with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter. "I'm always looking over my shoulder, like someone is going to come up behind me."

In the first few months after she was attacked, she was unable to go anywhere alone because she was so afraid, so terrified, she told Judge John Salazar. The support of her husband and two teenage children kept her afloat as she worked to move on with her life, she said.

The man who assaulted her, Wayne Steven Maynor, pleaded no contest in December to eight sexual assault charges just before he was slated to go on trial for the July 3, 2011 attack.

Maynor, 31, entered a Freedom Boulevard carpet store while it was closed. The woman was there to gather cleaning supplies to take to her other job when he confronted her with a knife and raped her. She was left bound and blindfolded inside the business as Maynor took off with her car and iPhone. Watsonville police were able to track Maynor down using an application on the woman's cellphone.

"I was in terror more than anything because I couldn't remember what the man who raped me looked like," the woman said Friday. "Every young white man who looked like him seemed to be him."

Maynor held his head down as the woman spoke, his hands clasped in front of him, a pained expression on her face.

"I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry," he told her, choking up.

Maynor's attorney said her client had wanted to take responsibility for his actions from the beginning but his plea was held up as she worked to negotiate a plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office.

"These things don't happen in a vacuum," Jamyrson Pittori said of the attack. "This is a sad case."

Maynor himself was a victim of ongoing, brutal sexual abuse as a child, she explained.

Judge Salazar said he believed that if Maynor had had a strong, supportive family such as the victim's, he doubted Maynor would be in the position he is now.

Still, he said, that doesn't mitigate what Maynor did, and he must now spend what will likely be the rest of his life in prison.

"That's unfortunate, but absolutely necessary," Salazar said. "The pain inflicted on you has now been passed on to others."